


Lost

by janey_p



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Being Lost, Forests, Gen, Isolation, Mystery, Prompt Fic, Swearing, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28461198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janey_p/pseuds/janey_p
Summary: A party night takes an unexpected turn when a young woman wakes up alone in the wilderness. Will she find her way home?
Kudos: 1





	Lost

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [@wordsfrompictures](https://wordsfrompictures.tumblr.com/)’s [3rd prompt](https://wordsfrompictures.tumblr.com/post/179329848104/prompt-3).   
> [Cross-posted to Tumblr](https://janeypro.tumblr.com/post/639054274068955136/lost).
> 
> I recently found this among my WIPs and realized to my horror that almost 1600 words of it had been written for over 2 years already. Only a short end scene missing, I thought. And then I added about 900 words today...
> 
> But yay, one WIP less to take into 2021 with me. :D

Well… Fuck.

Okay, so her outfit had been a bad idea.

In her defense, though, she had gone for aesthetic, not functionality, when she had dressed for the party. She couldn’t have known the night would end like this, after all.

 _How_ had it ended like this? Her memory was as foggy as her surroundings. All she could remember was arriving at the party, dancing to a song or two… And then?

… nothing…

… until she woke up, all alone in the wilderness, shivering in the damp, chilly air.

As far as she knew, she hadn’t even had a drink. So why wasn’t she able to remember how she got from the party to… wherever she was here? The hills looked vaguely familiar. But that could mean anything. It definitely didn’t tell her in which direction she’d have to go to find civilization.

Fishing her phone out of her pants’ back pocket to check her location, she was dismayed to see that it had no reception. Not even one measly bar. And the battery was slowly dying, too. Frustrated, she turned the useless thing off and stuffed it back into her pocket.

She’d have to find the way home on her own, apparently.

She scanned the horizon in every direction, but other than that faint feeling of déjà vu, she found no further clues. So she just started walking. No sense in staying in the middle of nowhere, with the mist clinging to her clothes and skin. The longer she stood there, doing nothing, the colder she’d get, after all.

If she kept walking, she’d eventually warm up. And maybe the fog would be gone soon, giving the sun a chance to come out. Wasn’t the horizon getting a little bit clearer already?

—

The misty twilight and the lack of a watch made it hard for her to tell how long she’d been walking when the path became rougher. At least a mile, she guessed. But the hills ahead of her still looked the same. Shouldn’t they be nearer by now?

—

She’d been walking for what felt like hours, and while it had become a little lighter, the high fog was still dense enough that she wasn’t able to tell the time by the position of the sun in the sky.

She was getting hungry now, and her feet were starting to hurt. She was fiercely glad she’d opted out of wearing heels last night. She’d have given up long ago, already, if she had. But if she didn’t come across water and food soon, she didn’t think she’d be able to keep going for much longer—sensible footwear or no.

Where _was_ she?

In whichever direction she looked, she saw nothing but grass, and rocks, and hills. A few bushes here and there, trees in the distance. If she hadn’t just stumbled over a sizable stone that she definitely hadn’t come across before, and if the grass hadn’t started looking a lot lusher the farther she walked, she’d have started to believe she’d made no progress at all.

—

A good while later, she rounded a hill… and stopped short in shock.

The hillside had blocked her view of the forest for some time, so she hadn’t been able to tell how close it was. But now she realized why it had taken her so long to reach it. She had severely underestimated its size, and therefore how far away it must be.

The trees at the edge of the forest right ahead of her were _huge_. The nearest one’s gnarly trunk had grown almost horizontally, and its branches looked like claws, reaching for her.

She took a couple of hesitant steps back.

What should she do? Turn around, or keep going?

She knew for a fact that there was neither water nor food nor shelter to be found for miles behind her. The forest would at least offer some sort of protection.

But was it worth it?

The forest was dark. The steady rustle of the leaves in the wind would swallow most of the quieter noises. Would she even notice if something dangerous was stalking her?

Then again, the grass on either side of the path was tall enough that all kinds of dangerous wildlife could hide in there, too…

The promise of shelter from the weather won.

She cautiously walked around the clawed tree and entered the forest.

—

Once her eyes had gotten used to the different light conditions, the forest wasn’t as dark as it had seemed at first. That was a great relief. And the trees protected her from the wind, so she was feeling a little warmer too.

Now, if only she’d finally find food and water…

—

It turned out that walking through the forest didn’t make keeping track of time any easier. It was getting darker now, but she couldn’t tell if that was because of the trees or because it was close to nightfall. If this continued, she’d have to stop soon. There was absolutely no way she’d be able to keep going and not trip over roots or run into low-hanging branches.

She’d have to find a place to sleep. Something that she hopefully wouldn’t have to share with some woodland creature. Which meant that the root alcoves she kept seeing were not an option.

Should she try climbing a tree?

No… also not an option. Despite some branches hanging so low, they were only sturdy enough to support her weight nearer to the trunks, at which point they were too high up for her to reach. And she wasn’t a skilled enough climber to manage without the help of the branches.

She sighed despondently. Now that she had stopped to consider her options, she finally started feeling all the discomforts of the day that she’d repressed since before she’d entered the forest. Her stomach was rumbling rather fiercely, her mouth was so dry that swallowing hurt, and her shoes seemed to have shrunk a size or two.

She’d like nothing more than to sit down and rest for a while, but she still felt too exposed on the path, even if said path was almost non-existent now. What if others used it? They’d surely come across her, then.

She shuddered to imagine who or what might be roaming the woods. So far, she hadn’t seen any evidence that she wasn’t alone, but she’d heard several calls that must have been made by animals. But they’d been strange enough that she hadn’t been able to identify them. So it could literally be anything. Maybe the callers were small and harmless, but did she want to bet her life on it?

Speaking of…

She realized that the forest wasn’t echoing with those eerie sounds anymore. What could possibly have stopped them, and when had that happened? There was only the rustle in the treetops left, and even that was quieting down. It was hard not to let panic consume her. The entire situation was just so... spooky!

A sudden crack somewhere behind her made her jump, and without further conscious thought, she started running.

—

When she finally broke through the treeline, she all but collapsed from exhaustion. She was so done with this forest. With the whole fucking day, to be honest! She just wanted to go home now, please…

But when she looked up, she was dismayed to see that she hadn’t made it out of the woods (ha ha _ha!)_ at all. This was only a clearing, and not a particularly big one, either. It was surrounded by trees that loomed as creepily as the clawed one she’d had to pass when she’d entered the forest.

She was slowly but surely spiraling down into desperation when she heard the faint sound of running water. And while that lifted her spirits a little, she almost didn’t manage to get up again. Her body felt like one giant, scraped up bruise, and it was protesting even the tiniest moves.

But... water! Water was important. She couldn’t give up so close to salvation, however temporary it may be. She _had_ to get to the source of that bubbly sound.

With daylight dwindling rapidly now, she almost stepped right into the rivulet. It was tiny—nothing more than a trickle, really. But it was clear enough that she could see the patterns on the stones it ran over, despite the darkening twilight.

Safe enough to drink, she decided and dipped her hands into the water. It was refreshingly cool and felt great against her skin. If only there were enough of it to put her feet in...

As it was, it took longer than her parched throat was comfortable with to collect enough water in her hands to drink. And then she spilled some of it because she had started shaking, from exhaustion and excitement both.

Drinking was a frustrating ordeal, and by the time she stopped feeling like she was about to collapse from dehydration alone, she was so drained that she didn’t even care anymore that she still hadn’t found anything to eat.

She knew she wouldn’t get up again before she’d had at least a few hours of rest. So she stopped fighting her drooping eyelids and let herself fall asleep.

—

A high-pitched wail rudely jolted her awake. What kind of creature could make such a jarring sound? Blinking groggily at her surroundings, it took her a while to realize what exactly she was seeing. Gone were the trees and the gloom of the forest—instead she was sitting in her bed, the morning sun flooding her room, and her alarm was reminding her to _get up already_.

Utterly confused, she turned the thing off. Had she only dreamed that she was lost, far away from civilization? What the hell had happened at the party? She still couldn’t remember having left, but she must have, somehow. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be here, right?

And why had the alarm woken her up? Wasn’t it Sunday? She always slept in on Sundays—the one luxury she allowed herself to have as a respite from her studying, aside from the occasional party every other Saturday night. Maybe she had subconsciously set the alarm when she went to bed? If she had been so out of it that she couldn’t even remember the night, it could very well have happened that way.

She cursed her past self. She was still so tired that she could have used a few more hours of rest. But now that she was awake, there was no chance that she’d be able to fall asleep again. It’d be better to start the day and have a cup of coffee.

Trying to swing her legs out from under the covers only resulted in one dominating thought: _Ow!_

Her whole body was aching. It was almost as if she really had spent many hours walking. For a moment, she felt light-headed from exhaustion. How long had she slept? Definitely not long enough, it seemed.

New plan! Hot shower first—maybe that would help with her aching muscles. Coffee second.

Getting to the bathroom was a chore, though. Her feet felt so very heavy, and her balance was shot. She hated every excruciating second of it. But the warm water had the desired effect. Slowly she began to relax—and almost managed to fall asleep standing up as the pain gradually went down. Whoops? That had never happened to her before… 

It was only when she was toweling herself off that she got a good look at herself in the mirror. And suddenly, she wasn’t so sure she’d only been dreaming anymore. Her pain and exhaustion could have been explained away if she assumed she’d walked home. The party _had_ been several miles away from her apartment, after all. But the number of scrapes and bruises she saw littering her body now spoke a different language.

Her legs shaking for a different reason now, she made her way back to her bedroom. Her phone was lying on her bedside table, still turned off. She almost didn’t dare to plug it in to charge it, let alone turn it back on. But then she steeled herself and told herself to get it over with.

As soon as the phone was finished booting, it exploded with incoming messages—all of them increasingly frantic inquiries from her friends about where she’d disappeared to. Some of those messages were from the afternoon. Why? That was long before the par—

And then she noticed the date. According to her phone, it _wasn’t_ Sunday today. It was Monday! 

What the ever-loving fuck???

Had she really spent all Sunday in the wilderness? If so, how had she gotten there, and how had she come back? Had she been kidnapped? Maybe even been watched the whole time she’d tried to get home? It was the most disturbing thought she’d ever had. 

There was no way she’d go to her courses today. Not the way she looked. And not the way she felt right now. There would be a lot of questions she had no answers to, after all. And she was sure that nobody would believe her story. It seemed pretty much impossible that she had somehow ended up in such a creepy place, far away from civilization, and come back in about thirty-four hours. Not all on her own. And even if a kidnapper was involved, it still sounded too far-fetched.

Nope! She’d stay home today. And maybe the next couple of days, too.

—

A few weeks later, her “adventure” almost felt like it had never happened. Her scrapes and bruises were long gone, and she’d been able to make her friends believe that she’d been sick. She didn’t know how she managed to convince them with little to no probing questions, but she was grateful for it anyway. The less she was reminded of that dreadful Sunday, the better.

Today, she was on her way home from a study group at the other end of the city. As she rounded a corner to turn onto the main street back to her district, she almost rode her bike right into traffic in her shock.

Right in front of her was a terrifyingly familiar view. If all the houses were replaced by trees and grass and rocks, she’d be looking at the hills she’d been walking towards in the wilderness. The main street even made the same slow descent into a shallow valley as the path she’d been walking on before entering the forest.

With her heart hammering wildly in her chest, she started wondering if she shouldn’t have asked _where_ she had been, but _when_ …


End file.
